PETWORTH.- A major new event in the Sussex calendar is The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair taking place in the grounds of Petworth House, the famous National Trust property bordering the picturesque market town of Petworth in West Sussex, from Friday 8 to Sunday 10 May 2015.

Some 40 dealers, predominantly members of the British Antique Dealers' Association and LAPADA The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers, are displaying their finest wares laid out in a purpose-built pavilion. The elegantly designed stands create a relaxed atmosphere to hunt for the very best antiques and fine art on offer. Organised by The Antiques Dealers Fair Limited, the team has established an excellent reputation for staging boutique-style antiques fairs around the country.

A huge incentive for visitors who have never visited Petworth House is entrance tickets to the fair (£10) also include free admission to Petworth House and Park to see its treasures, including paintings by JMW Turner and Van Dyck. In a reciprocal arrangement, Petworth House ticket holders and National Trust members can also have free entry to the fair.

Leading dealers attending the fair include Freshfords Fine Antiques, Guy Dennler Antiques & Interiors, Garret & Hurst Sculpture, Haynes Fine Art of Broadway, Hickmet Fine Arts, Mary Cooke Antiques Ltd, Richard Ogden Ltd, Rountree Tryon Galleries and The Canon Gallery. The fair has been very well supported by local dealers including Augustus Brandt, John Bird Antiques, Moncrieff-Bray Gallery, Pars Rug Gallery, Richard Gardner Antiques, Ronald G Chambers Antiques, Thomas Fine Art, Tim Saltwell, Merville Galleries and Wilsons Antiques. The fair encompasses both antique and contemporary periods giving everyone the opportunity to find something to their liking.

A fascinating highlight of the fair is an extremely rare pre-Renaissance portrait of Saint Catherine of Siena, dated c1500, circle of the Ghirlandaio family, Florentine, POA from Thomas Fine Art. This charming portrait exhibits the serenity of composition and everyday familiarity of gesture for which Domenico Ghirlandaio and his family were famous. Ghirlandaio's style was enormously influential and he is thought to have trained the young Michelangelo. Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was the Patroness of the City of Siena, who was instrumental in bringing about the return of the papacy from Avignon to Rome.

The exquisite range of jewellery brought by the dealers is always a highlight and delightful pieces such as a white enamelled snake brooch by David Webb, c1970, priced at £18,500 and a gazelle brooch by Chaumet, Paris, c1980, £12,750, both from Richard Ogden Ltd are no exception. A beautiful early Victorian bracelet in 18 carat gold with jet and diamond shamrock comes from Penny Corah and Rosie Manning, priced at £6,850. Other jewellery dealers are Horton London, T Robert, Markov and Sue Brown. Silver specialists include Mary Cooke Antiques, Malka Levine and JH Bourdon-Smith Ltd and an eclectic range of glass can be found with Mark J West.

There is an excellent selection of furniture in the fair from fine period English to Continental. Tim Saltwell is bringing a late 19th century French kingwood, mahogany and gilt bronze mounted table ambulante for £9,500 along with a fine Napoleon III gilt bronze and blue celeste Sèvres style porcelain mantel clock for £7,950. From Freshfords Fine Antiques is a decorative Regency sofa table with the rosewood table top attaining the most beautiful honey colour patina over the passage of time, c1815, priced at £9,500. Guy Dennler Antiques & Interiors has a good George III mahogany bow front dressing table, c 1790 for £3,450. Melody Antiques comes with fine pieces of oak and country furniture. General antiques dealers, Wilsons Antiques have a Victorian carved rosewood button-back arm chair for £1,275, a George III inlaid bow-fronted corner cupboard for £775 and a Victorian burr walnut dining table, c1850 for £1,950. An enviable range of antiques, very often statement pieces, are to be found on Augustus Brandt’s stand. For a classical decorative look, John Bird Antiques is bringing a pair of Chinoiserie chairs, £950 the pair and a Chinese screen for £2,500, and for the man who has everything, an antique footbath for £380.

The fine art at the fair is truly exceptional with some very fine examples such as Terwick Mill near Midhurst by Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979), Petworth and West Sussex's most famous local artist as well as an international name. For sale at £65,000 from The Canon Gallery, this oil painting has an excellent provenance coming from Ted Floate, a close friend of Hitchens, who helped him with his woods, framed his paintings and sometimes modelled for him. A highlight from Rountree Tryon Galleries is a portrait in oil of Sir Francis Grant on ‘Grindal’ by John Ferneley Snr (1782-1860), signed and dated 1851, priced at £95,000. Rountree Tryon Galleries also have an interesting watercolour depicting HMS Carcass, with HMS Racehorse behind, breaking through the ice in search of the North West passage by John Cleverley the Younger (1747-1786), £9,200. The young Horatio Nelson was a midshipman (paid volunteer) on board HMS Carcass. On Sarah Colegrave Fine Art's stand there are works by two local artists, Summer Glad Rags by Claude Muncaster, RWS (1903-1974) who lived in Pulborough and Harvest Field by Edward Stott (1859-1918) who settled in Amberley, where the surrounding countryside of the South Downs provided most of his inspiration. Haynes Fine Art of Broadway are showing oils by Marcel Dyf, Thomas S Cooper, Guy Lipscombe, Sidney R Percy, Heywood Hardy, Edward Brian Seago, David Shepherd and Richard H Nibbs. Other picture dealers are Moncrieff-Bray Gallery with paintings by John Hitchens (son of Ivon) and modern British artist George Hooper. Baron Fine Art, Cambridge Fine Art, Elford Fine Art and The Jerram Gallery are bringing a variety of traditional and contemporary subjects.

A collection of outdoor sculpture is being exhibited outside The Marquee using the space to its best advantage with the added unique backdrop of Petworth House. A magnificent show-stopper is Portuguese Senator, standing over 2 metres high and weighing over a tonne, by Paul Vanstone, price £18,000 from Moncrieff-Bray Gallery who is also bringing works by Penny Hardy, Clare Tupman, Felicia Fletcher, Dominic Welch, Simon Hempsell and Jilly Sutton. The Jerram Gallery is bringing Red Ribbon by Carol Peace for £7,400 and Diving Tern by Paul Harvey for £6,300.

Indoor sculpture will be plentiful around the fair including a fine early bronze cast of Pierre Jules Mêne's Giselle with a rare name plaque to the front of the base and original documentation, signed and dated 1850, POA from Garret & Hurst Sculpture. There is always strong interest in oriental pieces and Drove House Antiques, specialists in 17th and 18th century Chinese porcelain, ceramics and works of art, is bringing a Chinese Kangxi period blanc de Chine figure of Guanyin for £1,400. Antiquities from ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt can be found on Rountree Tryon Galleries’ stand. Clocks are a very collectable area and plenty of time can be spent at Olde Time, specialists in antique clocks and barometers. Unusual and cleverly sourced decorative items are found with Emma Duveen Art & Decorative Antiques. The perfect foil for antique or contemporary furniture, Pars Rug Gallery's oriental carpets and rugs, add the finishing touches to any house, whilst Marilyn Garrow Fine Textile Art’s stand has exquisite pieces that have amazingly withstood the test of time.

The fair is supporting two charities, the National Trust's Lighting Project at Petworth House and the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. Petworth House is home to important works of art and great care has been taken to find the right type and style of lighting, which is quite an investment. The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation fits perfectly with the fair, as there are a number of exhibitors selling wildlife inspired paintings and sculpture, including works by David Shepherd himself, his daughter Mandy Shepherd and grand-daughter Emily Lamb.